In the world of e-commerce, portal systems and applications (more commonly referred to as “portals”) are being increasingly used to provide software applications and services to end-users and third-parties. This is particularly important in the business enterprise environment, or on the Internet (where portals are often referred to as “Web portals”), since the portal can be used to group together and manage a large number and a wide variety of applications in a manner that allows those applications to be effectively delivered to a large number of users, each of which may have very different needs and access rights. The portal provides a central access point and a common look-and-feel to the end user. Portals can also be used to support collaboration between different parties, so that for example, a third-party vendor application can be integrated seamlessly within the enterprise platform.
Typically, the portal resides atop an application server, such as the WebLogic server product from BEA Systems, Inc. A product such as BEA WebLogic Portal, for example, delivers a single, unified portal framework for all enterprise requirements by providing foundation services that allow for sophisticated portal development; personalization and interaction management, intelligent portal administration to simplify and speed portal deployment; and portal integration services that allow application integration within and beyond the enterprise. Portlets, smaller pre-built modular applications that are primarily based upon Java Server Page (JSP) technology, execute within the portal, and can be provided either as part of the portal or can be created by third-parties. Portlets enable fast, out-of-the-box assembly and deployment of an enterprise portal solution by providing common application capabilities.
One of the problems with current portal offerings is they lack a convenient mechanism to integrate the flow of a complex software application (“application”) within the framework of the portal, so that the portal developer can easily include logic for portal-related events. What is needed is a mechanism for allowing the portal and the portlets, and other components therein, to communicate with each other in a manner that supports application flow within the portal as a whole.